Saturday, April 21, 2007

Canadian Libel Law Needs Revision

I've written before about how Canadian libel law stifles open and robust public debate on the issues. Canadian politicians such as Tony Clement, Jacques Parizeau, Lucien Bouchard, and Brian Mulroney have all engaged in reprehensible libel suits meant to stifle criticism and investigation of their activities.

Now there's yet another disgraceful example. Wayne Crookes, a Vancouver businessman and former Green party organizer, is apparently suing Wikipedia, Google, and openpolitics.ca for libel for articles about him.

In the US, such a suit would have little chance of success because of the "public figure" exception. Crookes is clearly a public figure and the public is not served by attempting to censor the discussion about his record.

For more about Canadian libel law, read Kimberley Noble's Bound and Gagged.

1 comment:

He has all kinds of lawsuits! See http://uncrooked.pbwiki.com/ he has soooed little people like this http://section15.blogspot.com/2007/04/i-am-being-s ued-by-wayne-crookes.html he got very involved in politics, and made many mistakes. People write things about him. They do not say that he eats babies, they say that he made mistakes that hurt the Green Party. Like what he is doing now. Instead of saving the earth, all these green people have to find money for lawyers, and spend time fighting the silly libel laws of Canada. In Canada, with libel you are guilty until proven innocent, and there are no penalities for bozos with lots of bucks who try to make people apologize for telling the truth. he is soooing this little worm for writing this: http://greencompostheap.blogspot.com/2006/08/blow-it-out-your-tailpipe.html and yet it is all true! You do not want people to be able to soooee you in British Columbia under their really old libel laws, do you? You do not have to live there to be soooeed.